Christ-followers can be led to believe the subtle and cunning lie of the enemy that faith can come by other means than the Word of God. We think that if we lightly snack on the Word every so often we can survive the onslaught of trial and tribulation of this world.
The inevitable end for a Christian who attempts to walk this earthly journey without really being nourished in the Word of God. ... dead ... and ... meat! Faith is fueled by the Word of God. Less time in the Word, faith will suffer. Paul made this clear in Romans 10:17 - So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
James makes it clear that the distinction between those who are simply “hearers of the Word” and “doers of the Word” is their attention span and consistency with time spent in the Word of God. He was drawing specific attention to the importance of meditating on scripture.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. - James 1:22-25
There seems to be a growing contingency of believers that are willing to look elsewhere, anywhere, and everywhere for Godly wisdom, truth, and knowledge, …as long as that place does not include the Bible. They will catch some biblical tidbits along the way. The books they read include scripture and commentary. The preachers they follow like to explain Bible passages for them. Even their favorite songs allude to scripture. Surely this is adequate to shape their theology for daily life, right? They assume this journey outside of the Bible will be sufficient to build a solid foundation of faith for hard times, persecution, and the attacks of the enemy. They believe this shallow approach will help them be able to stand the test of pressure, doubt, fear, anger, confusion, laziness, failure, pride, indecision, and insecurity that awaits them every single day, hour, minute, and second that we live in this world. Brutally honest reality check…it isn’t.
We cannot replace the Word of God with anything and expect the kind of sound faith to produce Godly results in our life. Eating a steak at a 5-star restaurant and picking up a bag of beef jerky steak bites at the local grocery store isn't the same thing. They may have the same ingredients, but let’s be real, one is a cheap knock-off of the real thing because you either can’t afford, don’t have the time, or don’t know the difference in, the real thing.
Don’t settle for beef jerky when you can have prime rib. Get into the Word today!